Digital cameras used to electronically record images are in widespread use. Some digital cameras incorporate communication circuits for wirelessly transmitting captured digital images to computers or other electronic storage devices. Likewise, mobile communication devices, such as cellular telephones and smart phones, that each includes a processor, display, and digital camera are very popular around the world and are used to acquire, display, and transmit digital images and video sequences as well as, in some cases, support internet access.
Captured images and image sequences can be stored on the capturing device or can be communicated to, and stored in, remote electronic storage devices, for example on home computers. Captured images and image sequences can also be stored on computer servers available through a communications network such as the internet. On-line digital image service providers enable digital image storage, communication, and image products using the stored digital images. The Kodak Gallery is one example of a number of such services. Computers, electronic storage, communication networks such as the internet, servers, and software for displaying digital images, either remotely or locally on a computer are all well known in the art.
It is also known to enable on-line digital image sharing with such digital image service providers. In this case, digital image owners enable access to their images by specified individuals, who can then remotely view the stored digital images. Social networks also provide digital image sharing for persons granted access to a user's digital image collection. In such networks, users can comment upon, register approval or disapproval of an image, or otherwise socially interact with each other about the shared digital images. US 2009/0307602 teaches systems and methods for creating and sharing a presentation. US 2007/0043792 discloses an image processing system for capturing images from an event and for distributing images so obtained to one or more clients.
Digital images can be ordered and presented in slideshows. One simple ordering arrangement is by date/time of capture. Other orders are by digital image file name, as specified by a user, or by analyzing the images and grouping them into events and structuring an ordered digital image sequence that can be viewed as a slide show.
A variety of methods are known in the prior art for automating the selection of images from an image collection, for example as described in U.S. Patent Application 2011/0123124. It is known to select images based on an image quality criterion, to select images shared in a social network that are the most commented upon or that have a relatively large number of approvals, and to recognize individuals depicted in a photograph. Semantic understanding of an image can be used to automatically create an image product, as described in WO 2008/156558 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,467.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2009/0051826 describes a method for displaying pictures in a digital picture slide show. The method includes receiving a plurality of pictures, determining display characteristics of the plurality of pictures according to weighting values of the plurality of pictures, and displaying the plurality of pictures according to the display characteristics of the plurality of pictures. The display characteristics include display duration, order and effects, and can be based on image information including browsing status, viewing statistics, rating results, and comment counts. US 2004/0125128 discloses a graphic user interface for a slideshow presentation.
US 20110069179 teaches coordinating different image capture devices at an event so that images captured by the different devices may form a cohesive and consistent image set. The system includes a group of image capture devices, referred to as an event capture group, wirelessly communicating with a remote server. The image capture devices in an event capture group can include still image cameras, video recorders, mobile phones and other devices capable of capturing images. The server coordinates the devices in a group before images are taken, so that the resultant images from the different devices are consistent with each other and may be aggregated into a single, cohesive image set. Images from different devices in the group may be uploaded during an event and organized on a remote database into the image set which may be viewed during or after the event
These prior-art methods for capturing, displaying, and sharing digital images are relatively static. Digital image collections are obtained, analyzed or reviewed or otherwise organized or processed, and are presented or used for an image product. In a more dynamic context, however, image collections and reviews can change as users interact socially. There is, therefore, a need for a dynamic method for presenting digital images that enables a social group to interactively capture, review, and present digital images or other digital media.